Regional NSW can be divided into five types of regional economy, based on their underlying geography, population and economic features. These are:
- Metro Satellite
- Growth Centre
- Coastal
- Inland
- Remote.
Look more closely, and you will see NSW is actually made up of many smaller local economies across these five categories. The NSW Government refers to these smaller economies as functional economic regions (FERs), each mapping out the regional communities that have strong economic links, mainly where people live and work.
In total, regional NSW can be categorised into 37 FERs, as outlined in the map below. Some of these cross state boundaries into Queensland, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The FERs are colour coded, to indicate the five types of regional economy.
